This invention relates to vendors, and more particularly to a vendor of the type comprising a cabinet having a front door and shelves in the cabinet for holding items to be vended, the shelves having a vending position within the cabinet with the door closed, and being slidable forward to a loading position extending forward from the cabinet when the door is open (and being further slidable forward to remove them from the cabinet, if so desired).
The invention is especially concerned with a spiral vendor of the rear-to-front type, such as is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,178,055, 3,269,595, 3,344,953, 3,591,045, 3,653,540 and 3,773,217, comprising a cabinet having a front door, shelves in the cabinet having their forward ends spaced rearward from the door to provide a drop space, helices on the shelves extending in rear-to-front direction with respect to the cabinet and adapted to receive items to be vended between their convolutions, the door having a window for viewing the forwardmost items, and means for rotating each helix to advance the items in the convolutions of the helix toward the forward end of the respective shelf and discharge the forwardmost item off the forward end of the shelf to drop down in said drop space.
Rear-to-front spiral vendors such as above described have come into use for vending candy, gum and mints and so-called snack products, including bags of potato chips, pretzels and the like. In such vendors, it is generally desirable to facilitate loading of the shelves by mounting them in the cabinet to be slidable forward from a vending position within the cabinet to a loading position extending forward from the cabinet when the front door of the cabinet is opened, and also that the shelves be further slidable forward to remove them from the cabinet, if so desired. A careless serviceman, however, may slide a shelf forward without having fully opened the door, resulting in the shelf striking the door and causing damage. He may also swing the door to close it without having pushed all the shelves all the way back into the cabinet, resulting in the door striking a shelf or shelves and causing damage.